


Picking at the Edges

by Leni



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-10-28
Updated: 2011-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:50:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 2,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabbles and ficlets written with several 'moods' as prompts. Canon pairings. Spoilers up to S4 finale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. accomplished - Meredith/Derek

**Author's Note:**

> _accomplished_
> 
> Set during S4 finale.

Meredith Grey was crazy.

She knew it as she closed the door to Derek's trailer behind her and rushed to her car. People driving on the same road knew it as she sped past them. Three clerks in three different stores knew it as she left, arms loaded with all the candles in storage.

Her new definition for 'crazy' was here and now, mapping out an imaginary house in her ex-boyfriend's land. One hour, one hundred ninety-two burning candles and a minor nervous breakdown later, Meredith smiled at her handiwork.

After all, Derek had always liked her brand of crazy.


	2. amused - Sloan & Karev

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _amused_
> 
> Set in Season 3.

"Hey, Karev."

Alex didn't especially dislike Dr. Sloan, but neither did he _like_ the man. He turned around to face the plastic surgeon, expression somewhere between annoyance and impatience at the interruption. "Yes?"

Sloan nodded into the patient's room before them. Inside, Meredith was recounting the risks of neurosurgery to a nervous couple. Meanwhile Dr. Shepherd tried to look focused - much unsuccessfully, since his eyes kept straying to his on-again girlfriend. "Derek's never been good at self-denial," Sloan mused aloud, amused. "Fifty dollars say Dr. Grey loses her panties before lunch."

Alex snorted. "Who says she's got them on now?"


	3. angry - Hahn & Ensemble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _angry._
> 
> Set in Season 4.

Dr. Erica Hahn entered the Emerald City Bar and rolled her shoulders as if to relieve a weight she hadn't noticed until she'd stepped outside the hospital building. Work at the hospital had been colder somehow, silent and efficient in a way Erica was not sure she approved of. So… mechanical. "Something was off today," she commented as she noticed some of the surgical residents at the bar. Small talk wasn't her preference, but she suddenly realized she'd barely exchanged words with anybody at work.

"Always gives me the shivers," Stevens agreed. "I was a minute away from a migraine - let's not go home tonight?"

O'Malley looked just as stressed. He nodded.

"Cowards," Yang said from her seat.

"Prudent," he corrected and motioned the bartender to refill his drink. "You'd think long-term exposure would diminish the effect," he added with a headshake. Stevens, and even Yang, sighed in response. "You wish," the blonde muttered.

"Long-term exposure to what?" There was a small, surprised, silence between the friends. Erica was surprised when three small pitying smiles answered. "Well?" she insisted.

"Newbie." Yang looked thrilled at the opportunity to know something the Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery did not. Not unexpectedly, she didn't expand on her answer. "You probably wouldn't believe it anyway."

"Webber's _actually_ stepping down this year?" she guessed. Dr. Webber was well-liked, losing him would account for the unusual atmosphere at Seattle Grace.

"Will he ever?" Yang seemed amused by the idea. But she didn't offer a straight answer.

Before Erica could say how she didn't appreciate being toyed with, a comment which would have surely widened the chasm between her and Dr. Yang, O'Malley stepped in. "The reason everyone's been quiet today… well… Dr. Shepherd planned to take Meredith out for the weekend; but she said that - Um." He stopped when Yang, Dr Grey's best friend if Erica had read it right, glared at him.

"It was a McFight, okay?" Yang finally admitted.

Erica wondered if they were serious.

When Steven's toast ("And may it blow over soon.") was echoed by two equally hopeful voices, Erica had her answer.


	4. annoyed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Derek/Meredith. Supposedly set in S1.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _annoyed_
> 
> Sorry about the continuity flaw! I wrote this before watching the whole of S1-2 - not my best idea! ^_^;;

For a second, Derek thought that his girlfriend's snoring had woken him up again. It was not so. For starters, the space beside him was empty and Meredith's barely lowered voice filtered through the remnants of his dreams. "I can't _believe_ it," she repeated once and again, obviously agitated.

Derek sat up, intending to determine the problem and talk her out of whatever drastic measure she'd talked herself into taking. Meredith was sitting at the edge of the bed, still in her underwear, using one of his T-shirts to brush at a wine-red fabric. Her blouse, if he remembered it right. Meredith should definitely wear that color more often. "Good morning, Mer."

The look she gave him was anything but 'good'. "Doesn't Doc have any boundaries?" she asked caustically as she brushed her blouse harder. "There's dog hair all over it and it's too late to go home to change."

It was amusing to see her like that. Lacy lavender underwear and the most annoyed frown in history on her face. "What do you expect, when you leave them on the floor?" he said reasonably. As if reason had ever worked on her.

"I can't go to a hospital with dog hair all over me," she almost-whined, and with an exasperated sigh threw his T-shirt back into his closet and resorted to picking every hair with her fingers. Three seconds later - two more than what Derek had anticipated - she pursed her lips and, eyes still fixated on the guilty light-brown hairs, told him that it was his fault.

Derek shook his head at that and finally got out of the bed. He pulled out a perfectly clean set of underwear, trousers and shirt. "I don't think these will fit you?"

"Don't be cute," she said warningly.

He pulled on his clothes, following her progress from the corner of his eye. He knew the obvious path to follow, but he needed to find the exact timing and phrasing to present it to her. "I'll be McHairy today - Cristina has the eyes of a hawk," she was complaining as she gave her blouse an accusing look. "I knew that spending the night was a bad idea."

Forget exact timing. This was now about distracting her before that idea took root. "You could keep a change of clothes here. There's enough space," and he opened an empty drawer to demonstrate. He had two seconds to school his expression and channel the anxious feeling into a complicated knot of his tie. Two seconds where his words sunk in and Meredith lowered the blouse to stare at him. "I promise, Doc doesn't fit in one of those," he said as lightly as he could, nodding to the drawer.

Slowly, Meredith turned her gaze to it, at the same time shrugging into her blouse without any apparent memory of dog hair. "I…." Her brow creased. "That's…."

Derek could practically see her rabbiting her commitment-phobic self out of his trailer and his life. He closed the drawer, a little more forcefully than he'd intended, and told himself he didn't feel guilty at trying to push their relationship in the right direction - or _any_ direction, for that matter. "Gimme," he said, reaching out. Still wide-eyed and speechless, Meredith shrugged out of her blouse again and put it in his hand. "I'm sure it was somewhere…" He started looking through an almost forgotten corner of his closet. "Ha!" He took out a brush and with a few strokes freed the wine-red material from the worse patches of curly hair.

"Thank you," Meredith murmured as she exchanged the blouse for her denim pants. She didn't mention his offer as they had breakfast, and neither did Derek as he drove her to the hospital.

Two months later Addison looked delighted at finding empty space for her clothes, and Derek couldn't think of a single good reason to deny it to her.


	5. 'anxious'. Meredith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _anxious_.
> 
> Meredith. S3.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _anxious_

It had seemed a good idea at the time. Even her subconscious had agreed, feeding her the most entreating images of her, Derek and Finn in the same bed. Obviously, her subconscious was a shameless hussy with no idea of how the real world worked.

Meredith glared as her phone started ringing. It'd be one of them, trying to one-upmanship the other. In the last weeks, she'd been dined and wined like never before, not even when she'd dated either man exclusively.

Casual dating? Overrated and so very stressful. "I'm not home," she groaned miserably.

But the phone kept ringing.


	6. 'apathetic' - Cristina & Meredith

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _apathetic_
> 
> S2. Cristina & Meredith. (with Derek/Meredith and Cristina/Burke between lines)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _apathetic_. Set in S2.

She could see them over Cristina's shoulder. Standing so close together, obviously focused only on each other's words. They both carried patient files, but Meredith doubted they were consulting on a case. How many pregnant women or newborns needed brain surgery?

"Are you even listening?" Cristina sounded ticked off.

Meredith blinked. "Burke. Stubborn. Bad Burke," she recited. Lately, Cristina's problems boiled down to one.

Cristina nodded, satisfied. "I told him I won't care about his tantrums anymore."

A last smile and each went their own way. "Right. Not caring." Derek didn't once look in her direction. "Not caring is good."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> S4. Derek & Mark. References to Derek/Rose and Derek/Meredith.

Rose smiled at him as they crossed ways, fresh-faced and obviously well-rested from a good night's sleep - at her own place.

"So, nursey there still immune to the Shepherd charm?"

Derek ignored Mark's comment.

"That's a yes," his not-quite-friend noted. "Unless there's something wrong with you instead?" Mark's eyebrow shot up at something in Derek's expression. "There isn't, is there?"

"Of course not." Except there was. Because he'd only smiled back at Rose, not one twinge of arousal in his reaction. But an hour ago the sight of a bedraggled Meredith at the clinic, bloodshot eyes and hair in a messy ponytail after a night shift, had near paralyzed him. "Nothing's wrong." Experience told him that denial never went far where Meredith was concerned. It didn't stop him from trying. "Nothing at all." And before Mark could voice his disbelief, Derek called Dr. Webber over and effectively ended their conversation.


	8. awake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> post-S4. Meredith & Karev & Izzie. References to Maredith/Derek and Izzie/Alex.

Something poked her shoulder, drawing her from the warm cocoon of her dreams. She opened her eyes under protest, and frowned when Alex's face greeted her. "Uh?" was her intelligent remark. She was fairly sure she'd done nothing last night that warranted Alex's presence in her bedroom first thing in the morning.

"Meredith. Wake up, now!"

Izzie's voice calmed her, and she felt no compunction about burrowing back into her covers. "It's my free day. Go'way."

"Yeah. Tell that to Shepherd," Alex sounded annoyed. "Seriously, do tell him. Booty calls at four in the morning? Please."

"Four?" That rang a bell… far down the valley of her consciousness. Something about a walk through the woods… seeing the changes spring brought… being too happy to deny him anything…. That was when the covers were pulled off her. Someone else picked her by the armpits and sat her up on the bed. When she opened her eyes again, it was to find Izzie's pinched expression.

The blonde was wringing one of her sheets between her hands. "He's been knocking and knocking and _knocking_ ," she said tiredly, "and if you don't go downstairs and do whatever you told him you'd do, _I_ will do it for you."

Meredith frowned. Behind her, hands still holding her up, Alex snickered. "Cranky Izzie," he laughed. "I like that." And he winked at her.

Izzie rolled her eyes, but didn't protest further.

Meredith looked between them. It was too early for underlying sexual tension. "Ew." She shook her head and stood to her feet. Then yawned. She was supposed to enjoy this? Derek couldn't possible know her this little. "Beauty of nature my ass." She yawned again, even more widely, and forced herself to look for the coat she'd thrown onto a chair last night. "I'm going!" she yelled as the knocking started again, draping the coat over her shoulders. "What's the rush, anyway?"

"He's been there for - " Alex glanced at the clock at her bedside. "twenty minutes."

"Would it kill him to wait for another second?" she wondered aloud as the noise escalated, pulling up her pants.

Izzie had decided that there was no need for her to remain awake and laid on the nearest bed. "Yes, kill'm." She spread Meredith's covers over herself and snuggled into the mattress. "Now lemme sleep," she mumbled as she covered her head. Alex lifted a corner of his lips at the sight, glancing at the empty side of the bed with a speculative look.

Meredith raised her eyebrow. "Don't." She finished tying her shoes and met his glare with one of her own. Alex opened his mouth.… "Really. _Don't._ " Alex shrugged gamely and started for the door. Meredith followed him, hiding another yawn behind her hand.

She'd been dragged out of her bed at four o'clock (well, almost), unwillingly sat first row to her housemates' mating rituals and now was expected to walk for miles to admire the spring.

Spring better have something worthwhile to offer in return.


	10. blank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> S2. Derek. References to Meredith/Derek.

"Her condition didn't develop for so long that we thought…. We were hoping for a miracle, I guess. And then she fainted."

Mrs. Julia Millar had been his patient five years ago, when they'd discovered an inoperable tumor nudged against the frontal lobe. Half an hour ago Michael Millar had walked up to him, announcing that they'd decided to transfer his wife to Seattle Grace. "Because you're still the best in your field," he'd said.

Derek wished that they had called him in for consult from New York. A change of atmosphere would be perfect. No Meredith avoiding him while her friends formed a wall around her. No Addison seeking him out at every chance, bringing memories from what he'd believed to be a successful marriage.

"So what do you think, Dr. Shepherd?"

His patient's husband had been talking for a good while, Derek realized, while he'd been musing on his own situation. "I…." Just then, Meredith passed by, chatting with O'Malley and pointedly not turning around and looking through his window like she'd have done not three days ago.

"Dr. Shepherd?"

Derek looked at the man on the other side of his desk, mind at a blank. Mr. Millar was looking at him expectantly. "You did the best under the circumstances. Julia knows that." A common enough platitude.

Mr. Millar nodded. "I just wish…" he started tiredly.

"I know." Derek's voice was just as despondent. And he did know. Because if wishes were horses, Meredith would have turned around.


End file.
